One of the most eventful months of activity on record. This is how it unfolded across the world:
1 November Belinda Moore appointed Chief Executive, and Genevieve Shore Chair of the new Women’s Premier 15 Limited (WP15Ltd)
1 November Sydney Morning Herald reports Charlotte Caslick wants to be considered for the 2025 RWC
1 November Referees confirmed for the two RWC semi-finals: Aimee Barrett-Theron and Joy Neville
1 November First professional Irish WXV players assemble at the High Performance Centre
2 November 29 Irish players sign pro-contracts, but several opt out, including csptain Nichola
Fryday; ten are 15s players, the rest 7s
2 November Black Ferns gained more TV viewers than All Blacks during fixture clash
4 November NZR supports idea of a Women’s B&I Lions tour; hard work ahead
5 November New inductees to the World Hall of Fame: Deborah Griffin, Sue Dorrington, Alice
Cooper, Mary Forsyth, Fiao’o Fa’amausili and the late Kathy Flores
5 November RWC semi-finals: Canada 19 England 26; France 24 New Zealand 25
5 November Exeter Chiefs will sell one of its ‘non-rugby assets’; more financial woes
6 November UAE win Asia Rugby 7s pool for first time
6 November Asia Rugby Women Leadership Forum took place in Nagarkot, Nepal.
7 November Bryony Cleall (Wasps) joins Quins; that makes at least eight internationals to leave
Wasps since last season
8 November More tickets released for Eden Park final
8 November Hollie Davidson (Scotland) appointed to referee RWC final, as expected
9 November Eden Park now officially SOLD OUT
9 November Jacinda Ardern, NZ Prime Minister, cannot attend final because of clash with
the East Asia Summit
9 November England and New Zealand announce squads for the RWC final
11 November An International Working Group (IWG) is formed to work of gender equality in rugby
11 November Beth Barz receives the Canadian NCCP Coach Developer Award
12 November RWC final: England 31 New Zealand 34; Bronze Medal match: Canada 0 France 36
World Record crowd of 42,579
12 November Colombia beat Brazil 25-17
13 November 20,000+ tickets already sold for England-France at Twickenham, 2023
13 November 1.7 million watched the RWC final on ITV; 1.3m Kiwis watched the final on Three or
Spark Sport; 2 million watched TF1 for France v Canada bronze medal match
14 November England will host the 2024 WXV; 2023 WXV location tba
14 November Four candidates for 2022 Women’s Sevens Player of the Year: Charlotte Caslick,
Maddison Levi and Faith Nathan (all Australia) and Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe (Ireland)
15 November RWC 2021: Sophie de Goede, Ruahei Demant, Alex Matthews, Laure Sansus and
Portia Woodman are the 5 candidates for Player of the Tournament
15 November Jasmine Joyce returns to GB Sevens
16 November BBC to show one Premier 15s game per round through 2022-23 season
16 November Five players sign on for GB 7s: Rhona Lloyd, Shona Campbell and Lisa Thomson
(all Scotland); and Kayleigh Powell and Jasmine Joyce (Wales)
16 November Ross Tucker (@scienceofsport) goes into huge and worrying detail about head
injuries
16 November Mica Evans and Flo Williams leave Wasps for Saracens. Total departures from
Twyford Avenue well into double-figures by now
19 November Les Elder, till recently the Black Ferns’ captain, retires from the game
19 November 1st round of the Allianz Premier 15s league; Bristol Bears are first to carry names
on shirts
19 November Red Roses’ 30-match winning streak recognised as a Guinness World record
19 November Czechia beat Belgium 29-21
20 November World Rugby Awards in Monaco: Ruahei Demant wins the women’s Player of the
Year award; Ruby Tui is the women’s Breakthrough Player of the Year. Much depends on how you define ‘breakthrough’; she is 30
Abby Dow’s try against Canada in the Rugby World Cup semi-final is named the International Rugby Players Women’s Try of the Year
Charlotte Caslick wins World Rugby’s Sevens Player of the Year
Dr Farah Palmer receives the Vernon Pugh Award for Distinguished Service
20 November University of Worcester Warriors beat Harlequins away, weeks after being on the point of extinction
21 November A World Cup Dream Team announced: 6 England, 4 NZ, 2 Canada, 2 France, 1 USA; Emily Scarratt part of this team for the 3rd RWC running
21 November Jessy Trémoulière becomes the first player post-RWC to complain about her management’s selection policy; ’lack of respect shown’
21 November Several leading 7s players will not take part in Super Rugby Aupiki 2023
22 November NZR promises to increase support for Black Ferns 15s
23 November Applications sought to replace Wayne Smith as Black Ferns’ head coach
23 November USA Rugby announces 13 names for Dubai and Cape Town Sevens; captain Naya
Tapper
24 November RFU called to Parliament to discuss with Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Committee how Worcester Warriors and Wasps ran up estimated debts of £130 million
One upshot: The committee’s chairman, Julian Knight MP, says: ‘I’m going to write to the Serious Fraud Office concerning Mr Colin Goldring’s activities’.
24 November Vodaphone become Principal Partners of DMP Sharks; excellent news
24 November Ireland will play France and England at Musgrave Park Cork in the 2023 6 Nations,
a reward for the big attendance last year for the Italy match
25 November French 7s team to compete in Dubai on 2-3 December announced
26 November Sweden beat Portugal 7-5 in Lisbon
26 November Despite Vodaphone’s involvement (see 24th above) DMP leak 95 points at home
27 November Second round of the ‘Campionato d’Eccellenza Femminile’, the elite Italian
league of eight clubs
28 November NZR appoints ex-Black Fern Hannah Porter as head of women’s high performance
28 November World Rugby looks at ways to speed the game up; a move aimed primarily at the
men’s version where the ball is in play too short a time
28 November Asia Rugby reports 20 Unions represented at a conference ‘Developing the Game
and Women in Leadership’; location Dubai, to fit in with Dubai 7s (2-3 December)
29 November Rugby Canada seeks applications for a new National Teams Operations
Coordinator
30 November Siwan Lillicrap, Wales’ captain, announces her retirement from international rugby
30 November The venue for the inaugural 2023 WXV has not yet been announced
